Prunus Cerasifera

Had it not been for a friend asking me, "What's that white-flowering tree I keep seeing along the road into Eatonville?" I might never have looked it up. It is so common that I had been dismissing it as "background noise" (thank you, Kevin, for expressing it that way). It is Prunus cerasifera, otherwise known as Cherry-plum, a non-native garden escapee with a strong tendency toward invasiveness. The birds enjoy the fruits enormously, and contribute to its spread by gulping down the "cherry-plums" whole, excreting the seeds far and wide. It's been in flower for some time now, and I figured as long as I had to go to Eatonville anyway, I should get some pictures before the petals fall. And as long as I had to go to Eatonville anyway, I asked Kevin if he'd like to go for a walk with me on the Bud Blancher Trail. We did four miles. Multi-purpose trip, this!

Prunus Cerasifera, Cherry-Plum

Day 186: When a friend first asked me to identify this common shrub, I was confused and didn't understand what she meant. I thought she might have been referring to Chokecherry or even to Ninebark, but neither of them was in bloom at the time. "You know, you see it all along the side of the road," she insisted, so I went for a drive and discovered that indeed, its very commonness had led me to take it entirely for granted. "Oh, that!" I said as I moved in for a close-up view of the flowers. I took pictures, and as soon as I got home, sat down with the plant manuals because other than being able to tell it was a Prunus of some sort, I had no clue which one. As it turned out, it was Prunus cerasifera, also known as Cherry-plum, a favourite with birds. For that reason, I have yet to see the fruit because they get there first.

Prunus Cerasifera

Day 183: The phrase is, "Familiarity breeds contempt," or to put it another way, "things you see frequently are easy to ignore." My attention was brought to this shrub recently by an inquiry from a friend. I'd never paid it any mind, dismissing it "as one of those flowering things which comes out at this time of year to trigger allergies," and not bothering to investigate any further. However, when put on the spot to give an identification, I realized that I honestly didn't know what it was, and that (to my way of thinking) was unforgiveable. It didn't even take a lot of digging to discover that it was Prunus cerasifera (commonly called "cherry-plum"), a garden escapee with a tendency to become invasive. Then I really started to notice it everywhere, great banks of it, fields of it, spots of it popping from forest edges. The field guides tell me it makes a small, tart fruit which can be made into jam if you can gather enough of them before the birds gobble them down. I don't recall having ever seen it in fruit, but then, I wasn't looking, was I?